Dear Andre,
I'm Gianpiero Morbello, serving as the Head of IOT and Ecosystem at Haier Europe.
It's a pleasure to hear from you. We just received your email, and coincidentally, I was in the process of sending you a mail with a similar suggestion.
I want to emphasize Haier Europe's enthusiasm for supporting initiatives in the open world. Please note that our IOT vision revolves around a three-pillar strategy:
achieving 100% connectivity for our appliances,
opening our IOT infrastructure (we are aligned with Matter and extensively integrating third-party connections through APIs, and looking for any other opportunity it might be interesting),
and the third pillar involves enhancing consumer value through the integration of various appliances and services, as an example we are pretty active in the energy management opening our platform to solution which are coming from energy providers.
Our strategy's cornerstone is the IOT platform and the HON app, introduced on AWS in 2020 with a focus on Privacy and Security by Design principles. We're delighted that our HON connected appliances and solutions have been well-received so the number of connected active consumers is growing day after day, with high level of satisfaction proven by the high rates we receive in the App stores.
Prioritizing the efficiency of HON functions when making AWS calls has been crucial, particularly in light of the notable increase in active users mentioned above. This focus enables us to effectively control costs.
Recently, we've observed a substantial increase in AWS calls attributed to your plugin, prompting the communication you previously received as standard protocol for our company, but as mentioned earlier, we are committed to transparency and keenly interested in collaborating with you not only to optimize your plugin in alignment with our cost control objectives, but also to cooperate in better serving your community.
I propose scheduling a call involving our IOT Technology department to address the issue comprehensively and respond to any questions both parties may have.
Hope to hear back from you soon.
Best regards
Gianpiero Morbello
Head of Brand & IOT
Haier Europe
If only they would have reached out this way the first time instead of a cease and desist, their brand getting dragged through the mud could have been avoided.
The general population is very much influenced by the Home Assistant community since the Home Assistant Community is made up of people who are heavily into technology. My parents will run purchases in the tech world past me, as will many of my work colleagues and friends.
The general population are very interested in what we do, even if they do not do it themselves. I mentioned to a tech-phobic friend that I have sensors in my bath that notify me when my bath is run and he takes the piss out of me to my face then talks about how amazing such a thing is behind my back, I know because it happened yesterday. Who do you think he’s gonna talk to when he buys his next expensive appliance?
Don’t talk our influence down, we have an influence even if you can’t see it.
You’re showing your bias as someone who’s knowledgeable about technology. It’s not uncommon for people with an interest in something to assume that knowledge or interest is universal. It’s not.
The average consumer has absolutely no idea how technology works, and they have no interest in knowing. They’ll just buy off the shelf garbage because brand name and nothing else.
I mean, why does HP’s printer division still exist if “everyone” knows they’re a shitty company that will brick your printer if you use 3rd party cartridges? Why do people buy Tuya devices even though they’re essentially Chinese government spying devices?
It’s because “everyone” doesn’t know. And they don’t care.
When you said “I highly doubt it” in response to the first comment, what were you doubting? You comment does not seem to make sense in response to the comment. They said that the open source project has likely cost more money in lost subscription fee’s than in AWS API calls, and you said you doubt it?
Then the person replying to you said “The general population is very much influenced by the Home Assistant community” not that everyone knows about it. But your comment talks strictly about how commonly known things in the tech world are not commonly known in the general population (which I think is pretty commonly known in the tech world as well).
This comment chain does not seem to be talking about the same things.
It was in response to the claim of lost sales being higher than the AWS bill for the integration
300 million AWS api calls costs $1.00. If they lost even 2 sales because people could just use HA instead, they 100% lost more money in subscriptions than the cost of AWS api calls
API calls aren’t the only thing they’d be charged for.